A W Smith
A. and W. Smith and Co of Eglinton Engine Works, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, was an engineering company founded in 1837. Company history Timeline * 1837 Brothers Andrew and William Smith, millwrights, formed a partnership as agricultural and general engineers in Paisley, Renfrewshire, under the name A. and W. Smith and Co, millwrights and machine engineers. Their first machine was a steam-driven sugar mill for Tobago, West Indies. * 1855 The firm moved to the Eglinton Engine Works in Tradeston, Glasgow, and began to specialise in the manufacture of sugar machinery, having been introduced to the sugar industry by W. and A. McOnie, engineers, Glasgow, who had subcontracted them to manufacture cattle-driven sugar mills. * 1869 Railway wagons and weighbridges were also a speciality and the company produced its first tank locomotive for Robson Maynard and Co, coalmasters, Middlesborough. * 1870s Advertised shunting tank engines. * 1896 They became, A. and W. Smith and Co Ltd. As well as sugar machinery, the firm also produced bridge and structural steelwork for locomotive sheds and buildings. * In the twentieth century, the inter-war period saw the sugar machine industry struggle in the general depression of world economy. Most sugar-producing areas were equipped with relatively new machinery with a long life expectancy so the stable demand for sugar meant little work for machinery builders. * 1930s Most of the West of Scotland firms survived, but only through diversification. A. and W. Smith and Co, bought the power hammer business of R. G. Ross and Sons in the early 1930s, made Loudon planers for Russia, and took out a licence for sandslingers for foundry use. * 500 HP horizontal steam engine supplied to CSR Goondi Mill for crushing sugar cane. Now preserved at the Australian Sugar Industry Museum, Mourilyan.Old Glory Magazine No. 211, September 2007, p.29 * The 1950s and 1960s saw a collapse in the industry with A. and W. Smith and Co acquiring the goodwill of most of its former rivals. * 1953 The company was acquired by Tate and Lyle, sugar refiners of London. * 1967 They acquired Mirrlees and subsequently traded as Smith Mirrlees. Smith Mirrlees was acquired in 1988 by Fletcher and Stewart, sugar machine manufacturers of Derby. * They ceased to operate at the Eglinton Works in the late 1980s. * 2002 A. and W. Smith and Co was a non-trading subsidiary company of United Molasses, itself a subsidiary of Tate and Lyle. The company was the last sugar machinery manufacturers in Scotland. Product range * Portable engines * Industrial locomotives * Stationary Engines * Stationary steam engines * Sugar refining machinery Preservation * One example of an Portable Engine built by A W Smith survives.Photos on Steam Scenes web site - * A 500 hp stationary steam engine is preserved in the Australian Sugar Industry Museum in Mourlyan, Australa. See also * Mirrlees * Smith Mirrlees * List of Steam Machinery Manufacturers References/Sources of Information Based on an article in Graces Guide web site - A and W Smith and Co; * Usines Sucrieres de Mayotte (Sugar Refineries/Plant) * British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816 External links add links to more info or photos on other sites here. Category:Steam machinery manufacturers Category:Defunct companies of Scotland Category:Portable engines Category:Companies of the United Kingdom